Answers of an age old question
by J.G.Lukasiewicz1919
Summary: A question as old as time itself, "Where did we come from, why are we here?" To be finally answered, at least. In the case of the SW/WW universe, by the least likely of sources. Note: This isn't official, this is just to set up more multiversal nonsense for future fanfics in relation to the Zipangese Star Empire and it's multiversal incursions.


Long ago, in a dimension far out of the reach of the one known to the witches, a great empire spanned galaxies, numerous dimensions, all after a war to determine the fate of the whole of reality, itself. This empire, was the Zipangese Star Empire, the remnants of an empire that lasted merely two centuries. Reformed into something greater, something forged to last for all eternity, it seemed the Zipangese had finally created for themselves a place in history of higher prominence than those that came before it. In it's preparations for what was assumed to be the final war for the whole multiverse, the Zipangese, Vers, and the Andromeda Empire worked together in secret for one project, one chance should their efforts be for nought and their foe successful in it's endeavour to enslave or exterminate those deemed "unfit" in their eyes as being free, independent beings. They created for a new dimension a race of women given the gift of "magic" to safeguard a planet that would eventually rise to either take on the foe the ZSE, Vers, and Andromeda feared, or to join the three empires in a higher order.

However, long after the war was over and the foe defeated, old grievances arose and once again war was waged, the final great war, one which burned reality itself. All three powers were shattered into smaller, bickering territories. All that remains of the greater powers are ruins amongst the multiverse, this one is no exception. Unbeknown to the other former powers, the ZSE left, seeded in the dirt of this planet a warship, outfitted with the greatest weapons, a wealth of knowledge, defences to guard it, and one to watch over it all. This is the legacy of the Zipangese Star Empire.

* * *

**June 17th, 1948, The Mountains of Bavaria, Karlsland**

* * *

Just over 20 million years ago, a great war was fought by an empire believing itself to be the truly rightful owner of a universe that exists parallel to one upon which humanity arose out of it's primordial ooze and slowly advanced from beating each other with rocks and sticks to now fighting wars of defence against monstrosities whether they be from space or originate from within the earth itself.

By all accounts the war ended with a victory for this empire, however still. Whether it be by their leaders' paranoia or by cautious planning should they fall in the future, the Earth was seeded with people that possessed extra-human abilities to help protect the primitive beings that began to emerge as the dominant species on this planet, instead of being hated or feared as planned, they were accepted by the humans of this new world, in this dimension hidden away from prying eyes and forgotten about. Now the ashes of the past and what was to be shall be uncovered.

Just three years after the end of the Second Neuroi War, questions still remained as to what these crystaline beings were and their purpose on earth. After the war, in the middle of Karlsland laid a great mine that was seemingly constructed by the Neuroi for some mysterious purpose while newly developed technology has measured a large concentration of artificially generated energy at this mine.

Thus a great international cooperative investigation is taking place with eyes from around the world on this one spot. This one spot which started it all. And such is the hand of fate, the 501st and 502nd were reformed under the newly created United Nations to provide security for the investigation with numerous ground witches. Answers are sought. And answers will be given, more questions will arise however as they will find what lies below does not abide trespassers, save for those deemed worthy of the knowledge that has lied buried for years unknown.

Erica sighed and looked around, sitting on a wooden crate while Gertrud was preforming maintenance on her MG-42. "I don't get what's so important about this stuff. We beat the Neuroi isn't that good enough? They're not here anymore." Erica said looking quite bored. "We're just looking to figure out why they came to Karlsland in the first place, Hartmann. If we can figure out why then maybe we'll better understand them in the future." Gertrud said, replacing the barrel in her MG-42.

"Alright, alright... I just didn't think we'd be stuck here." Erica said still looking bored. "You're certainly right. I never expected us to have something under Karlsland be the reason for the Neuroi showing up twice in 30 or so years." Minna said as she passed by Erica and Gertrude with Gundula Rall. "Commander Minna... What's going on below?" Erica said trying to find something to get her mind off the repeated questioning of why she was stuck in the middle of the mountains of Bavaria.

"Nothing as yet. You'll know when something does happen." Minna said with a smile continuing on her way with Gundula... Meanwhile higher up, Mio watched with Yoshika and Lynne with a better view of what was all below. "I always thought retirement was the end of my involvement with the military. But a lot has proven me wrong in the time between losing my powers and now." Mio said speaking aloud to herself, Yoshika and Lynne were looking through binoculars pretending to not hear what Major Sakamoto said. "Everyone looks so small even down there and we're not in the sky..." Yoshika said. Lynne nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah..." Lynne said in agreement.

"...Hmm?" Mio said as she felt the ground start to shake, Yoshika and Lynne too felt it and held onto each other as the ground began shaking ever more violently. "Earthquake!" Minna shouted and the witches of the 501st and 502nd held on to whatever or whomever was close by as they waited for the ground to stop shaking. After a few minutes the ground finally stopped and the workers underground came up running for their lives. The witches immediately went into action to stop them and figure out what happened to almost no avail.

Gertrud managed to get a hold of one of the workers. "What happened down there?!" Gertrud asked the man, Minna approached also wondering the same question as Yoshika, Mio, and Lynne made their way down to join their comrades. Off on the other side of the mining camp, Edytha could be heard yelling something to the effect of "The earthquake's over now get off of me you fake countess!" Before another yell could be heard as if someone was just punched into the next century. Finally the worker spoke up. "There's so many of them down there! Statues! Hallways! Endless hallways! They killed ten of us! We need to get out of here!" The worker said in a panic as he ran off, managing to get free from Gertrud's grasp.

"That.. Doesn't help at all." Minna said with a sigh as Hikari, Takami, her sister. Nikka, Kanno, Edytha, Krupinski whom had a black eye, Sadoko, Georgette, and Sasha showed up with Shirley, Lucchini, Eila, Sanya, and Perrine. "What happened down there?" Mio asked as she, Yoshika, and Lynne showed up last. "It appears there is something down there and apparently killed ten people... We need to radio for reinforcements, meanwhile we need someone to go down there and check out the validity of it all." Minna said, not liking the sound of it at all but still. Protocol was protocol. "I'll go down there, I can handle whatever it is with my fists." Kanno said as she cracked her knuckles. Yoshika was next to speak up. "Yes, I'll go down there with Kanno too!" Yoshika said, naturally Gertrud was next to volunteer and as was Lynne. Then Perrine, Mio, and Edytha. "Alright then you are our advanced recon group, get your weapons and get in there then get out quickly. I want you all to come back." Minna said rather hesitantly.

"Don't worry I know, I'll make sure of it." Mio said with a smile as Yoshika brought her a STG-44 with a grenade launcher attached to it, Yoshika had her own. Lynne brought her Boys' AT-rifle, Mio went off and grabbed her Katana, meanwhile Kanno came back with her gloves and a Type 100 SMG, Gertrud brought up an MG-42, Perrine returned with a PIAT and Edytha came back with a MG-42. Quite almost immediately soon afterwards, the group congregated at the entrance of the mine with flashlights attached to belts and re-breathers on.

"Alright, let's go." Mio said as she lead the group down into the mine. "Hold on!" A young voice called out and the group stopped in their tracks to see Hikari and Takami with their own weapons. "We're coming too. Though I still think it's a bad idea, Hikari too." Takami said as she carried a Type 99 LMG with a bayonet attached, Hikari carried a Type 99 rifle with a Type 2 Rifle Grenade launcher at the end of the barrel and a bandoleer of rifle grenades. "Well. the more the merrier, we'll probably have better luck anyway if we have some explosives." Mio said before continuing to lead the group down into the mine.

"Be careful! All of you!" Minna yelled down into the mine. "Yeah be careful!" Gundula yelled as well while the group descended into the dark depths of the mine...

* * *

**Entering the belly of the beast..**

* * *

One by one, flashlights turned on and the witches shined them over the way before them, a trail of blood leading off in the distance.. "That isn't foreboding. At all." Gertrud said with a sigh. "Mhmm." Sakamoto said flipping off the safety on the STG-44 she was handed. "Alright, everyone keep close and watch each other's backs." Mio said before motioning for the group to follow her. Through the darkness, lower, and lower the group descended into the mine following the blood trails, the feeling of unease getting worse and worse while brief tremors were heard and felt every now and again before Takami spoke up.

"Major, isn't it getting warmer in here? Almost unnaturally warm?" Takami asked as she got up ahead of the line along side Sakamoto. "Yes, it is. Which has me more worried." Sakamoto said before, just ahead of them a figure rushed out quickly, stopping in the centre of the hall, an unnatural being, somewhat human in shape but yet.. Also not.

Sakamoto and Takami raised their weapons as did Gertrud and Perrine before the figure disappeared. "W-what was that?!" Perrine yelled, the tense feeling in the air slowly turning to fear. "I don't know, I've never seen anything like it, it wasn't a neuroi. That's for sure." Sakamoto said, lowering her STG-44. "Come on!" Sakamoto yelled, running forward, it took a minute for it all to click with everyone else and they ran to catch up with her, the mine's walls turning from dirt and rock to smooth, cold metal before they caught up with her in a large open room, in the centre was a statue of a woman with clothes that no one had seen before with a Katana drawn, pointed to where the sky would've been had they not been deep underground. Her face as far as anyone could see with their flashlights appeared to be that of a woman from Fuso.

"What is this..." Edytha asked as she went and approached the statue, finally everyone took their eyes from the towering height before them to the base where a table stood with a orb sat upon it, looking to be made mostly from glass. "Be careful, Edytha." Kanno said aiming over at the orb, which had begun pulsating a light blue glow. "I know, I know." Eydtha said nervously, touching the orb it began to float up into the air.

Everyone aimed their respective weapons at it before it began projecting in the centre of the room multiple "screens" which floated around in a circle, the group got close to the screens and what they saw horrified most, all of it was a record of war, cities burning, cities which looked to be from Karlsland, Galia, Britannia, Romanga, Suomus, Orussia, Liberion, even Fuso at different points from past, present, and future, burning, then they showed whole planets burning.

Then in between they showed scenes of peace between three nations, with one being most prominently seen, a nation that appeared similar to Fuso, one that was by far technologically advanced. Then it showed a map of the world, though it wasn't a map of their own world. It was completely different in geography to that of the Earth that everyone present knew, three nations stood out on this map, glowing they were brought forth and labelled as "Germany, Japan, Union of British North America." Germany seemed to lay where Karlsland was on the map, Japan where Fuso was, then the UBNA over where Liberion would be.

Then the screens converged into one, to show the figure, the statue was made of, speaking, it was clear it was a speech of a declaration of war, but it was against one of the other nations shown, Germany. Then the screen transitioned to the world map shown previously however red cross hairs had appeared over multiple European cities and one in Asia, then the cities disappeared while Japan, shown in red began expanding throughout Asia and other territories in the pacific, then the UBNA, afterwards the scene then transitioned to what appeared to be an aircraft carrier and Fuso marines albeit with a change in flag on their uniform gunning down sailors and officers with uniforms that looked to be from Karlsland before the bodies were simply dumped off the aircraft carrier.

This caused even Gertrud to feel uneasy as she looked with concern to Sakamoto who just stared with Takami. Lynne ran off to the side and began vomiting while Yoshika patted her back. The screen transitioned again to a map of Europe with two nations shown in red then the rest shown in blue, these two in red would be what everyone would normally recognise as Gallia and Britannia, then the blue began expanding over Galia, expanding from Karlsland while green began engulfing Britannia.

Afterwards the map of the world was shown with Japan's territory declining, the blue and green engulfing the territory shown in red before finally over where Faraway Land would be on the map, just above Liberion in what was represented as the Union of British North America, a red cross hair appeared and seemed to transition once again to film footage of a large explosion, never seen before, a sort of Mushroom cloud had appeared, however they began to notice the film was in colour, showing the mushroom cloud in a strange purple hue, before the footage was cut back to the world map, then focused in on where Orussia would be, at least in the North of Siberia, anyway.

Then it showed a great underground complex stretching on for miles underground before showing two large rooms on the outer edge of the complex, buried under the dirt. Transitioning on, to "outside" the complex, the ground opened up and two large objects which looked somewhat reminiscent to one certain neuroi type that had been seen before by the 501st witches just four years ago when the group reunited to save Yoshika Miyafuji on her trip to Helvetia, from a large neuroi incursion in northern Gallia.

Not long afterwards, it showed these two large objects soaring into the sky, then out into space, together. A year appeared to take centre stage of the screen, then finally after the numbers turned and changed it showed 2030... Before doors opened behind the statue, two large doors, the group made ready their weapons and the orb floated over to a figure dressed in clothing similar to that of the statue, their head was covered by a strange helmet which had two long sort of "antennae" pointing out of it, beside each other, almost shaped to ears of rabbits, like Shirley's familiar, in their right hand was a strange staff.

The orb flew to the figure and they extended their left hand out, palm upwards as the orb lowered into their hand. "Who are you?! Identify yourself!" Mio yelled, pointing her rifle at the figure and the figure seemingly ignored her, turning it left down a poorly lit hallway. Now the group had two choices, follow this figure, or turn back...


End file.
